Bahagian Integriti dan Tadbir Urus - Jabatan Perdana Menteri

The Whistleblower Protection Act 2010 is a law of Malaysia to combat corruption and other wrong doings by encouraging and facilitating disclosures of improper conduct in the public and private sector, to protect persons making those disclosures from detrimental action, to provide for the matter disclosed to be investigated and dealt with and to provide for the remedies connected therewith.

The act was passed by Parliament in June 2010, and was brought into force on 15 December 2010. The objective of this act is to give protection to the whistleblower in the form of confidentiality of their information, immunity from civil and criminal action and protection from detrimental action being taken against them. Whistleblower protection is one of the Malaysian Government’s efforts towards tackling corruption and promoting good governance under Government Transformation Programme (GTP).

The whistleblower protection law covers any member of the public and private sectors who discloses wrongdoings. Among the disclosures that intended to be disclose are abuse of authority, violation of laws and ethical standards, danger to public health or safety, gross waste, illegality and mismanagement. The disclosure should be made in “good faith” based on “honest and reasonable grounds at the material time” without necessitating hard evidence from the whistleblower. The duty of gathering evidence will be tasked to the investigation unit of the enforcement agencies to ensure that the whistleblower is not compromised. However, whistleblowers can provide evidence if it is legally available through the course of their work.

Disclosure of the confidential information will be liable to a fine not exceeding fifty thousand ringgit or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years or both. A whistleblower will not be subject to any civil action or criminal liability and no administrative process can be taken against the whistleblower for making disclosure of improper conduct. Under the act also, no person shall take detrimental action against any whistleblower or person related to or associated with the whistleblower in reprisal for a disclosure of improper conduct.